Safety Concerns, From the Mouths of This Year's Super Bowl Players

The Steelers' James Harrison wants your kid to get an education. The Packers' Tramon Williams says that regardless of improved technology, football will involve injury. Sunday's Super Bowl stars talk with PM about football equipment, improving safety and advice for youth athletes.

Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers

Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers

As the football season slowly built towards its furious climax, so did the media's discussion of the long-term mental health of NFL athletes. Spectacular and sometimes devastating injuries are nothing new to the sport, but it's now widely acknowledged that repeated concussions put football players at risk of traumatic brain injury later in life. Even more disturbing, we now know that even high school athletes routinely put themselves at risk.

So what to do about America's most beloved and, arguably, most violent sport? Change the rules of the game? Rely on improved technology to help protect them? As a native of Pittsburgh, I feel genuinely conflicted. The Steelers define the spirit of the city as strongly as the mills they were named after once did. And, yet, when I read news articles on concussions, they're more often than not accompanied by a photo of a hard-hitting (or hard-hit) player in black-and-gold. So with the opportunity to meet players in both Super Bowl teams this week, I asked them one of two questions.

Tramon Williams, Green Bay Packers Cornerback

Tramon Williams, Green Bay Packers Cornerback

Will technology make the sport safer for players and kids?

"They change the tech every day at this point, trying to make things better for players. It's a shame that regardless of what they change, there are still going to be injuries. This is a violent game. Everyone understands it and chose to be here. That's the way I look at it."